'Blade Runner' Fan Film Ditches Robots for Sci-Fi Hallucinogens

If Rick Deckard was grappling with futuristic drug dealers instead of tracking down Nexus 6 replicants, his story might have resembled a new Blade Runner fan film called Slice of Life. The Croatian fan-made film is set in the Blade Runner world, and though it’s only a trailer, the footage is already convincing enough to fit seamlessly in with the action of the original. Aesthetically, it actually feels closer to the original film than the upcoming real sequel; Blade Runner 2049.

Directed by Luka Hrgović, Slice of Life tells the story of illegal narcotics in the same noir-futuristic world of Blade Runner. Speaking to The Verge, Hrgović said the story will be about “lives of other characters that are trying to make a living in the dangerous streets of futuristic Los Angeles.” So, while Deckard is chasing down robots-run-amok, this movie’s protagonist will be driving a flying 1987 Citroën BX, which if you blink, looks a little like the flying DeLorean from Back to the Future.

Slice of Life also seems to focus on some kind of narcotic hallucinogens, which may even be referred to in its title. The source material of Blade Runner — Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — doesn’t focus on sci-fi drugs, but several of author Philip K. Dick’s other science fiction books, do. Hallucinogens and addiction are a huge theme in Dick’s book A Scanner Darkly, as well as his short story “Faith of Our Fathers.” So, blending speculative drugs into the Blade Runner future makes perfect sense.

This fan project won’t end up being anything more than a short film, and its Kickstarter hasn’t even begun yet. Still, one glance at the trailer for Slice of Life immediately re-transports the viewer back into the original Blade Runner so effectively, that it barely feels like a fan film.